“Today, the challenge is no longer solely about developing innovations, but about successfully ensuring their sustainable adoption in the field.”
For nearly ten years, Fermes Leader has been supporting agricultural cooperatives in the identification, experimentation, and deployment of innovative solutions addressing the challenges of the agricultural world. Through projects conducted with its network, a recurring observation emerges: although innovations are numerous and needs are very present, their adoption in the field often remains quite complex.
Fermes Leader therefore surveyed French agricultural cooperatives to identify:
- Current priorities regarding innovation;
- The most commonly used dissemination methods;
- The main barriers to adoption;
- The levers likely to promote better adoption of innovations by members.
This study is based on 63 respondents from 45 different cooperatives, supplemented by 13 interviews conducted with network volunteers.
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Key Findings
The survey highlights several strong trends:
- Nearly 3 out of 4 cooperatives have a dedicated innovation structure or are in the process of structuring one.
- Soil health, disease management, and water management emerge as the main innovation priorities for the surveyed cooperatives.
- The cost of solutions and economic uncertainty stand out as the main barriers to innovation adoption, ahead of many other factors.
- The more regularly cooperatives communicate about innovation, the higher the reported adoption level by members.
- The results also show that innovation priorities, encountered barriers, and adoption levels are not identical for all cooperatives and respondents. Significant differences appear depending on the sectors represented, the level of structuring, or the support methods implemented.
- Despite the proliferation of available innovations, the adoption level is still considered moderate by a majority of respondents
Questions Addressed in the Survey
These initial results raise several questions:
- Why do some innovations still struggle to be adopted despite their performance?
- What are the main barriers identified by cooperatives and farmers?
- Are innovation priorities the same across different sectors?
- What role do training, field trials, or external partnerships play in innovation adoption?
The complete study provides answers to all these questions with detailed analyses, numerical data, correlations, and feedback from interviews conducted with cooperatives.
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